by Teresa Gubbins

Most likey, some do not.

Have you met the hot new dining companion showing up at Dallas-area restaurants and foodie events? He's a little guy named Canon. He doesn't eat much but he's a bit of a voyeur. Some restaurants don't mind; others kick him out.

Whether it's a scallops tasting at a North Dallas fish restaurant or a clubby food dinner at a Denton sushi house, you'll find Canon and his friends Nikon and Fuji clicking away, as bloggers and hobbyist diners go about documenting their dinner.

Previously, cameras turned up in restaurants for birthday parties and celebrations. Now they're used by diners who want to share the details of their dinner among friends or online.

Most restaurants tolerate it, as long as it doesn't affect other diners. But some places, such as Snappy Salads at Preston and Forest, enforce a strict ban, usually out of fear that a competitor is stealing their recipes or ideas.

"The owner doesn't allow pictures to be taken, no," says Snappy Salads staffer Cynthia Schobert. "I had a guy just recently, I noticed a flash -- he was trying to take a picture of our line. He was taking pictures of the restaurant. If we notice somebody taking photos, we ask them not to. We feel that our concept is unique."

Cowboy Chow is another place with a no-photos policy.

"If it's someone having dinner with friends or at a party, we don't disturb them, but not just someone sitting there taking photos of the place," said an employee at the Deep Ellum branch.

Salum owner Abraham Salum says it doesn't usually bother him, but he did have one recent occasion where he had to intervene.

"It was a party of 20 and they were snapping away with a flash, and some of the other guests were like, 'Can you tell them to stop?' I stepped in because other people were bothered by it. It's the same thing as when someone gets noisy in a restaurant. It's a delicate thing but at some point you have to tell them."

At TruFire Kitchen, they once had a guest who began videotaping the interior of the restaurant.

"Pictures are not a problem if they're taking pictures of themselves, but not of the restaurant," says TruFire's Omar Adame. "The guy was walking around trying to take video and pictures, all of the restaurant. We had no idea who it was. We asked him gently to stop. You want to provide good service, but taking pictures of the kitchen makes you suspicious."

Brad Murano, who takes photos for his The Brad's Adventures in Food blog, notes that cameras are especially verboten in chain restaurants.

"They're told not to allow it, it's espionage," he says. "The only time I ever had a problem, I wrote about it last year, was at Cowboy Chow, when the manager just really got upset. Generally, I don't like doing it, and flashes are absolutely no way."

Frozen-yogurt places are especially resistant. At Tutti Frutti in Richardson, I once started to photograph the mural on the wall and the counter guy came around from behind the counter and shouted, "My business! My business!" until I left.

Which, says Julie Machal-Fulks, a lawyer with Scott & Scott who specializes in intellectual property, he has every right to do.

"The mural is protectable," she says. "And I think that, even if it weren't, a restaurant could establish a policy much like restaurants have policies against cellphone usage. It's perfectly acceptable to say, 'We don't allow cellphone usage,' as long as they're not applying it in a discriminatory manner."

If something has a copyright, you can't take a picture of it without permission. But can a plate of food be copyrightable?

"The requirement is that it has to be in a sufficiently permanent or stable state, and I would argue that food is not," she says. "You can protect a photograph, or an architectural drawing, or a book, because they're sufficiently established in the medium where it won’t change. A plate of food? I’m not sure that would be sufficiently stable. The fact that you bought it does help. The fact that it's in their establishment would weigh against you."

Serious Eats offers tips on how to do it politely, summed up as, "Don't use flash, don't move around the table too much, and don't take so many photos that the dish's temperature drastically changes by the time you get to eat it."

Murano's day job as a professional cinematographer gives him a heightened awareness of camera gear.

"I use a camera that’s extremely small and low-light sensitive so I can get decent pictures without bothering anybody," he says. "Everyone's got an iPhone. I know chefs that do it. If you look at [Stephan Pyles chef] Matt McCallister's Facebook page, he was just in Spain with Stephan Pyles doing the Madrid thing and he posted everything he ate on Facebook. It's a fun thing. People are passionate about food. The danger for a restaurant comes in when you take a photo that comes out poorly and the dish isn't fully portrayed."

Go Fish chef Tiffany Derby takes it as a compliment.

"If people come in and see something so pretty to them that they'll take a picture, I'm excited that they like it," she says. "I don't think of it as an invasion. There is nothing new under the sun."

Second Floor chef J Chastain has not only seen the occasional camera, he's received calls from food bloggers who'll take photos and write a review in exchange for a free meal.

"We've had a couple of food bloggers call the restaurant, and say that if we give them a free meal, they'll blog about us on their website," he says. "We've done it for a couple of them. I won't say who. It's PR, in one form or fashion. You're basically paying for a PR ad."

Aurora co-owner Celeste Samuel says the sight of the occasional diner, "sitting there with their little iPhone, some even taking notes, it can make you a little bit nervous. On the other hand, it is PR. If someone is putting something out there about you, it’s only going to help."

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